£1.4bn fund manager buys Quilter for long-term growth

The manager of the £1.4bn Standard Life UK Equity Income Unconstrained fund has been buying shares in Quilter because it is an attractive long-term opportunity.

Tom Moore said he bought the shares when Quilter floated on the London Stock Exchange in June because it has operations in several long-term growth areas of business.

Quilter, formerly known as Old Mutual Wealth, is the parent company of adviser network Intrinsic and Old Mutual Wealth Private Client Advisers.

Mr Moore said: "We bought a new holding in Quilter, which is a wealth management business comprising financial advice, platform administration and investment management. All of these areas are set to benefit from structural growth drivers over the medium term. Quilter’s earnings are also set to benefit from the launch of a cost efficiency programme."

Quilter floated when it separated from its parent, Old Mutual, while the single strategy asset management arm has been sold to its management team led by Richard Buxton and backed by a private equity firm.

Quilter has a market capitalisation of £2.9bn and has been admitted to the FTSE 250. Its chief executive Paul Feeney told FTAdviser recently that growing the company’s advice arm through acquisition would be a priority for the business.

Mr Moore’s fund has returned 51 per cent over the past five years to 23 July, compared with 41 per cent for the average fund in the IA UK Equity Income sector in the same time period. The fund has a yield of 4 per cent.